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Candide |
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"Totally fun. The best offset to a clever script is a very minimal set: Candide uses two traveling trunks masquerading as the ever changing environment augmented every so often by a chair or two or a strip of fabric. And incredibly effective costuming should be noted as well. If you’re up for a laugh and feel like a farce, you would do well to check this production out."
-Janelle Lannan, Theatre Is Easy |
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Thoroughly Modern Millie
*2009 ReviewFix Award Winner, Best Musical Production |
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“A shining example of verve and ingenuity. Every performance is heartfelt. Director Neal J. Freeman orchestrates the scene transitions with a seamless fluidity that puts the original overproduced Broadway production to shame.”
- Heather J. Violanti, nytheatre.com
“Catching a performance of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” is quite possibly the most fun thing you can do with your clothes on in Park Slope this month. From start to finish, this musical does not disappoint.”
- Mike McLaughlin, The Brooklyn Paper |
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“Director Neal J. Freeman has scaled Millie down effectively, creating a thoroughly enjoyable production. While the Broadway incarnation sparkled, its spectacle was larger than life. Freeman has not lost sight of the characters' humanity. As a result, the production has a charm and an earnestness which the original lacked. This Millie is worth knowing.”
-Shari Perkins, TheaterOnline.com
“A fresh, sparkling production.”
-Celia Sharpe, The Peripatetic Critic
“The production is as light on its feet as its jitterbugging cast. Director Neal J. Freeman shows off their stuff to perfect effect by letting the production flow from scene to scene, a move that also highlights how much the company does without a Great White Way-sized budget.”
- Ellen Wernecke, New Theater Corps
“A warm and welcome tonic for these cold winter months, The Gallery Players’ winning production of Thoroughly Modern Millie is a must-see. I was initially skeptical about how the show would work in a more intimate, Off-Off-Broadway-sized space. But tucked into this smaller venue, the show’s charms are only more obvious—there’s still plenty of dancing and gleaming grins galore, but the characters and the comedy are all the more vivid when viewed from a cozier seat. Director Neal J. Freeman has made some clever, cheeky choices that wink at the theater’s limitations. This Thoroughly Modern Millie is a scrappy fighter with personality.”
-Amy Krivohlavek, OffOffOnline.com
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The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots
*2009 NYIT Award Nominee, Best Production of a Play |
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"Neal J. Freeman's staging of the play is fluid and entertaining, with Hannah Shafran's minimalist set serving the show extremely well. John Eckert's lighting and Freeman's sound design are also fine. One thing's certain: there's talent aplenty on display here."
-Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
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As You Like It |
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"Neal J. Freeman conjured an elegiac mood in a fluid, sensitive staging. The evening was awash in muted beauty...Carolyn Goelzer's Touchstone was a marvel. The gender confusions that abound in this play were this time located in this usually fully male clown, made a female passing as male."
-Ross Haarstad, Tompkins Weekly
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The Wild Party |
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"A well-staged production with intense performances from a talented ensemble cast…A spirited revival that more than merits a subway ride to Park Slope."
-Matt Windman, amNewYork
"A true revival [that] breathes zesty, new life into the seven-year-old musical, freshly imagined under the sane and sober direction of Neal J. Freeman. The work can turn trashy in a nanosecond under the wrong direction, but to Freeman’s credit, he takes the spicy material and gives it lots of jazzy substance. Snub this Wild Party at your own risk."
-Deirdre Donovan, The Brooklyn Paper |
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"A hypnotic and intoxicating party in which to lose yourself. Director Neal J. Freeman keeps his ensemble on their toes - they are both interested and interesting - throughout the production. Composer Andrew Lippa sat across the aisle from me during the performance I attended, and judging from his reactions to the show, both he - and the responsive audience - are happy to have this Wild Party back in the city."
-Amy Krivohlavek, OffOffOnline.com
"Director Neal J. Freeman and choreographer Brian Swasey provide clarity, a sense of mischief, and clockwork precision in moving the 18-member cast around the stage."
-Christopher Murray, Backstage
"There is one sophisticated showstopper after another in Park Slope's Gallery Players' dazzling revival of Andrew Lippa's cult musical."
-Bruce-Michael Gelbert, QonStage.com
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Fatboy Romeo |
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One of 15 shows (of over 200) to be named Tops at the Fringe by amNewYork.
"This is by far
the least tragic Romeo and
Juliet that I've ever seen or thought possible...Fatboy
Romeo posits the Montague lover as a silent, obese little guy who eats
everything in sight and Juliet as the frighteningly buxom,
pitifully narcissistic wench who somehow falls in love with
him...Fatboy
Romeo is undeniably fun to watch." -The Gothamist |
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"Freeman's
concept is solid--a
mission to expose America's cultural gluttony through an
archetypal tale...The Romeo puppet is particularly
inventive...Impassive and unblinking, he is the ultimate ugly
American consumer, impervious to feeling on his single-minded
quest to feed himself." -Amy
Krivohlavek, OffOffOnline.com
"The
leading man is spot-on...As
designed and executed, Fatboy Romeo the puppet succeeds as a
poignant stand-in for the deadening compulsions that motivate
pop culture." -George Tynan Crowly, nytheatre.com
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Vincent in Brixton |
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"Under the
perceptive direction of 1997 CU graduate Neal Freeman, this
production, with its strong cast, scrapes across the psyche as
only good theater can...This production has an intimacy and
power that the 2003 Broadway production lacked...The
play's final moment, where she pushes pen and paper into his
reach, is breathtaking."
-Barbara Adams, The Ithaca Journal
"Director Freeman keeps up the pace and tension in a play that
has often been criticized for its low spots or 'lulls.'"
-Caissa Willmer, The Ithaca Times |
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All in the Timing |
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"Neal Freeman
provides robustly whimsical touches from the opening moments,
throughout the scene changes, and on into the curtain call."
-Caissa Willmer, The Ithaca Times
"Neal Freeman
and an energetic cast provided plenty of physical
slapstick...[He] set an energetic pace and contrived engaging
scene changes that made use of characters from the scene
before."
-Judith Pratt, The Ithaca
Journal |
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The Laramie Project |
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"Director Neal Freeman does an outstanding job staging a play
that can be quite challenging; his direction of the controlled
chaos of the media frenzy is particularly striking."
-Richard Hinojosa, nytheater.com
"Neal Freeman
creates a flow that's crisp but not rushed...He elicits skillful
performances from his capable cast."
-Michael Bracken, Metro NY |
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As You Like It |
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"Director Neal Freeeman brought a refreshing interpretation to the play. Freeman was quoted
as saying 'In this production, I have vigourously attacked the
challenge of letting the sadness and the joy live side-by-side.'
Freeman and his cast accomplished that with ease." -Jessica
McNeill, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
"Nicely
paced and skillfully staged...a theatrical construction of great
aesthetic precision. Freeman possesses a keen eye for
tableau." -Fred Backus, nytheatre.com |
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The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) |
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Named Pick
of the Week by nytheatre.com for April 4, 2005.
"Neal Freeman does a
great job coordinating this highly physical show...I was very
impressed by the pace and timing he sets."
-Richard Hinojosa, nytheatre.com
"It is the actors' tour de force performance and Freeman's
unerring judgment in moving them around the stage that turns the
script...into something more than what might be the brainchild
of cleaver college sophomores."
-Paulanne Simmons, The Brooklyn Papers
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Twelfth Night, adapted for 6 actors |
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"A radically stripped-down vision of
Shakespeare, superimposed onto a Beckettian landscape...By tackling Shakespeare's romantic comedy with the absolute minimum in cast size and staging--and with a remarkably flexible sextet of actors--the Run of the Mill Theater has come up with a starker, edgier version of a classic...Rapid transitions, onstage costume changes, and the generally fast pace of this production encourage parallels that you may not notice in a fully cast production." -John Barry, CityPaper
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Fifty-Fifty |
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Excerpts from judges'
comments on the award-winning production:
"Neal Freeman's direction was
the most assured and inventive of this year's festival; there
wasn't a dramatic or comic moment in the play that he neglected
or failed to realize its full pontential."
"Brilliant
directing.
This is a winner. Excellent use of the space, the
furniture, and the actors' particular talents. Fast paced,
brilliant production. Amazing in its physicality in so
small a playing area. The overall vocal work and movement
were the best in the festival."
"Direction solid. All the right
choices.
Exceptional use of the space. Nicely blocked.
Pacing, timing all exceptional. The rhythms created with
the individual actors was a major strength of the production.
Neal Freeman had a good script with which to work, but he made
it a superior production."
"Every element
seems to be in place for a reason, and the final effect is
touching and wise. The play is deftly directed and the actors uniformly good."
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